TechingToday

The ability to search for popular circles may come to Google Chrome for iOS

General

Launched on May 1, Google's Circle To Search has been one of the best new features on Android for quite a while.1 Now, it may come to the iOS version of Google Chrome.

Circle To Search allows you to draw a circle on an image displayed on your phone. The tool identifies the object and starts a Google search.

Initially, this feature was only available in the Samsung Galaxy S24 lineup and Pixel8. It's gradually being added to older Pixel phones, but it hasn't really left the Galaxy or Pixel family.

Circle of Search Chrome upgrade for desktop was suggested last weekend via an obvious Google Lens update that has already come. But it is a work in progress that we may not see for some time.

However, the Mac Observer crew recently announced that it could be an updated version of Google Lens Search for iOS in the form of a "Lens circle to search" flag in Chrome's code for iOS.

As with the desktop Chrome version, it's not clear whether Google will release a circle to search for Chrome updates. The potential features are still under code review, and it's not clear where in the process the review is taking place. As mentioned earlier, Google maintains Circle to do a fairly exclusive search on Galaxy and Pixel phones. How long they want to keep it is up in the air.

Enterprising iOS users can already use it as a recreation of the circle to search for Google Lens and iOS shortcuts. There is a "Find Screenshots" shortcut that you can use on iPhone and iPad. When a screenshot is taken, it can be searched automatically using Google Lens.

iPhone15Pro users can set shortcuts to action buttons. It's a little clunkier and does not bring the specificity or speed of the circle to search, but the options are there.

During I\O2024 there was speculation that Chrome updates could be slotted in with announcements about Android15. However, the Android15 update we got was related to the AI and Google Gemini features that appear on Android. Perhaps more will happen when Android15 is released this fall in time for the next Google Pixel phone.